TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 207 



building societies are most largely extended. The Queen's Building Society, 

 Manchester, has au income of £734,578, and assets exceeding £900,000 ; the Leeds 

 Building Society iias 10,262 members, an income of £454,624, and assets amount- 

 ing to £786,179. In London, also, are several very large societies. 



On tits Trade and Commerce of ilie City and Port of Bristol. 

 By Leonaed Brtjton, Secretary to the Bristol Chamber of Commerce. 



The object of the paper was to point out the great advantages which had accrued 

 to the trade and commerce and the general interests of the city and port of Bristol 

 by the operations of the Bristol Docks Transfer Act 1848, and the consequent 

 reductions in the dock dues. The reductions Avere very considerable, amounting to 

 more than 50 per cent, on an average on vessels, and to about 20 per cent, ou 

 goods, that is, foreign produce imported. 



Statistics were given of the import trade for 20 years before and 27 years after 

 the reductions, which showed that, whereas in the first period, under the high dues, 

 the progressive increase was at the rate of 33 per cent, on an average, dividing the 

 20 years into two decennial periods, a similar comparison for the 27 years since 

 the reductions had been at the rate of 66 per cent, decennially. 



A similar comparison with regard to the net rateable value of property within 

 the municipal limits showed, that whereas the rate of increase before the reduc- 

 tions in the dock dues (that is, from 1841 to 1851) was 7 per cent., in the first period 

 after the reductions it was at the rate of 16 per cent., comparing 1861 with 1851, 

 and in the second period after the reductions it was 41 per cent., comparing 1871 

 with 1861. 



Taking the extreme points, the foreign import trade of the port had increased 

 300 per cent., comparing 1848 with 1874; and the net rateable value of property 

 had been nearlv doubled between 1841 and 1871, viz. from £406,206 in 1841 to 

 £719,913 in 1871. 



Notwithstanding the reductions, the money receipts for dock dues had increased 

 50 per cent., and those for town and other port charges paid into the city chest 

 amounted to three times more in 1874 than in 1847 ; and the city was receiving 

 upwards of £12,000 more per annum from shipping than the amount of the rate on 

 the fixed property towards the reductions in the dues. 



Statistics were also given to show to what extent the different branches of the 

 foreign import trade had increased since the reductions in the dues, viz. : — sugar, 

 126 per cent. ; timber, 65 per cent. ; grain flour, &c., 430 per cent. ; hides, tallow, 

 &c., 142 per cent. ; and other produce, 139 per cent. 



The paper referred also somewhat in detail to the general advantages which 

 had resulted to all interests in the city — commercial, manufacturing, public im- 

 provements, docks, and railways, &c., and concluded by paying a tribute of respect 

 to the late Mr. Robert Bright, an eminent merchant of Bristol, to whom, as the 

 President of the Bristol Free Port Association from 1846 to 1850, the credit of 

 this gi-eat change was chiefly due, and by regTetting that the Corporation and the 

 citizens had not more continuously and more fully carried out the Act of 1848, 

 which had coufen-ed such great benefits on the city and port of Bristol. 



In reply to a question as to the rate of progress in other ports, statistics were 

 read of the foreign import trade of the United Kingdom, which showed that it 

 was increasing about 25 per cent, faster than that of Bristol before 1848, whilst 

 since 1848 Bristol had recovered that lost ground, and was now keeping equal 

 pace with the United Kingdom generally. 



On the Principles of Penal Legislation. — Second Paper. 

 By John T. Bttet, Chaplain of Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum. 



Blontesquieu laid it down as one proposition in political science, that the monar- 

 chical governments of Europe were founded upon a principle of honour . Further, 

 he contended that this principle of honour involved the setting of .'i lew value upon 



